Last researched: August 26, 2026

Sortly Alternative: OrbitEquip vs. Sortly for Tool Tracking

If you're comparing Sortly and OrbitEquip, both can track physical items and support check-in/out.

But they are built around different inventory models.

Sortly = broad visual inventory and stock-management software.

OrbitEquip = focused serialized tool custody for contractors and field crews.

Sortly can manage tools alongside materials, products, quantities, stock levels, purchase orders, jobs, custom fields, photos, reports, integrations and mobile inventory workflows. OrbitEquip is deliberately narrower. It focuses on serialized tools and equipment that move between employees, vans, jobsites and locations.

OrbitEquip primarily helps answer:

What tools do we own?
Is the tool available?
Who currently has it?
Where does it belong?
When was it checked out?
Has someone reported a problem with it?

Quick verdict: Choose Sortly if you need quantities, consumables, low-stock alerts, purchase orders, custom fields, visual inventory, stock counts, jobs or broader inventory workflows. Choose OrbitEquip if your central requirement is narrower: QR-based accountability for serialized tools moving between crews and locations.

For the wider category, see our best tool tracking software comparison. If you are evaluating the handoff workflow itself, see our equipment checkout software guide.

Disclosure:OrbitEquip publishes this comparison and is one of the products discussed. Sortly facts were researched from current official Sortly pricing, product and developer documentation. We have not conducted a hands-on Sortly product test, so we do not claim firsthand experience where none exists. We explicitly identify situations where Sortly is the stronger fit.

OrbitEquip vs. Sortly at a glance

OrbitEquip versus Sortly feature comparison
Feature	OrbitEquip	Sortly
Best suited to	Contractors tracking serialized tools	Businesses managing broader inventory and stock
Serialized tool records	Yes	Yes
Quantity inventory	No	Yes
Consumables / stock	No	Yes
QR scanning	Yes	Yes
Barcode scanning	No	Yes
QR label creation	Yes	Yes
Barcode label creation	No	Available on applicable plans
Browser-based phone scanning	Yes	Web and mobile workflows; verify the exact scanning workflow for your account
Native mobile apps	No	Yes
Offline mobile access	No	Yes on applicable plans and workflows
Check-in / check-out	Yes	Yes
Current holder / history	Yes	Yes
Custom fields	No	Yes; limits vary by plan
Custom folders and tags	No arbitrary folders or fields	Yes
Item photos	Maintenance photos only	Yes
Low-stock alerts	No	Yes
Date-based alerts	No	Yes
Purchase orders	No	Yes on applicable plans
Pick lists	No	Yes
Stock counts	No dedicated stock-count workflow	Yes
Jobs / work orders	No	Yes; current Jobs feature
Maintenance issue reporting	Yes; reactive issues, photos and resolution history	Date alerts and inventory workflows; not presented here as an equivalent reactive issue queue
API / webhooks	No public customer API	Enterprise
QuickBooks Online	No	Premium / applicable plan
Slack / Microsoft Teams	No	Available on applicable plans
Users	Unlimited	1 / 2 / 5 / 8 / 12+ by plan
Free plan	25 tools, unlimited users	100 Unique Items, 1 user
Paid entry	$15/month, 500 tools	$49/month list price, 500 Unique Items

Feature availability can vary by Sortly plan and workflow. Sortly's Unique Item limits and OrbitEquip's tool limits measure different things; the pricing section explains the difference.

Tracking tools rather than stock?

Try OrbitEquip free with up to 25 tools.

Unlimited users. Browser-based QR scanning. No credit card required.

Try OrbitEquip free

Which one should you choose?

Choose OrbitEquip if:

Your inventory is primarily serialized reusable tools and equipment.
Each item should be individually accountable.
Tools move between employees, vans, jobsites or tool cribs.
You mainly need check-in/out, current holder, locations and history.
You do not need quantity-based stock.
You do not manage consumables.
You do not need reorder alerts.
You do not need purchase orders.
You do not need custom fields.
You do not need offline inventory updates.
You do not need business-system integrations.
You want unlimited team users under the current OrbitEquip pricing model.

Choose Sortly if:

You manage products, stock or materials alongside tools.
Quantities matter.
Low-stock alerts matter.
You need to reorder inventory.
Purchase orders matter.
Stock counts or audits are part of the workflow.
You want item photos as a core inventory feature.
Custom fields or folders are important.
Barcode support matters.
Offline mobile access matters.
Jobs or work-order inventory assignment matters.
QuickBooks, API or other integrations matter.

If those inventory workflows are important, OrbitEquip is not a like-for-like Sortly replacement.

“Who has the cable tester?”

OrbitEquip is primarily designed for this accountability problem: identify the exact tool, record the handoff, and see who currently has it.

The biggest difference: stock inventory vs. tool custody

Sortly is an inventory system

Sortly manages a broad mix of inventory, including:

Unique Items,
Quantities and units,
Materials and consumables,
Products and SKUs,
Tools and equipment,
Photos, folders and custom fields,
Locations and stock levels,
Alerts, purchase orders and jobs.

A business can track Nitrile gloves - 250 units and care about when the quantity falls below 50. That is a core inventory use case, not an edge case around tool tracking.

OrbitEquip is a custody system

Tool → QR label → person/location → check out → check in → history

OrbitEquip is designed to answer questions such as:

What tools do we own?
Where does this tool belong?
Is it available?
Who currently has it?
When was it checked out?
Has someone reported an issue with it?

OrbitEquip does not currently manage quantity inventory, consumables, low-stock alerts, purchasing, pick lists, stock counts, custom folders or general inventory photos.

Better suited to broad inventory and stock management: Sortly

Better suited to focused serialized tool custody: OrbitEquip

Sortly Unique Items are not the same as OrbitEquip tool limits

Compare the counting model before comparing the headline number

Sortly pricing uses Unique Items. Sortly explicitly states that quantities of one Unique Item do not count separately toward the Unique Item limit.

Sortly example

Work gloves - quantity 200 can potentially be one Unique Item when it is stored as one inventory item with a quantity.

Serialized-tool example

500 individually serialized power tools can represent many separate inventory records because each unit needs its own identity and custody history.

OrbitEquip's tool limits refer to individually tracked asset and tool records. Therefore, do not compare “500 Sortly items” and “500 OrbitEquip tools” as if the capacity metrics were identical.

Pricing capacity is only comparable after you understand what your business counts as an item.

QR and barcode workflows

Sortly scanning

Current Sortly materials describe:

QR labels,
Barcode labels on applicable plans,
In-app barcode and QR scanning,
Smartphone and tablet workflows,
Existing QR and barcode support where applicable, and
Third-party scanner support for supported workflows.

Sortly's QR and barcode workflows are part of its broader inventory model. They can identify tools, but they can also identify supplies, products, materials and other inventory.

OrbitEquip scanning

OrbitEquip currently provides:

QR codes rather than traditional barcodes,
Printable QR labels from the dashboard,
Browser-based scanning from a phone,
No native OrbitEquip app required, and
Manual or browse-and-search fallbacks when scanning is not practical.

Read more about QR code tool tracking when the requirement is intentional scan-based accountability across crews and locations.

Better suited to focused browser-based QR tool custody: OrbitEquip

Better suited to mixed barcode and QR inventory workflows: Sortly

Photos and visual inventory

Sortly is especially strong for visual identification

Sortly supports item photos as a core inventory feature. Its current photo documentation says teams can add up to eight photos per item or folder, from mobile or desktop, to track appearance, variants and condition over time.

That matters when a team needs to distinguish similar products, document supplies or show the condition of equipment before it moves between locations.

OrbitEquip currently supports photos in its maintenance issue workflow. It does not provide general asset photo galleries or a visual inventory system equivalent to Sortly's item-photo model.

Better suited to visually identifying inventory and documenting item condition: Sortly

Custom fields and organization

Sortly offers configurable inventory structure

Sortly documents:

Custom fields,
Custom folders and subfolders,
Custom tags,
Custom units of measure, and
Customizable user access and permissions on applicable plans.

Current plan limits for custom fields are 1 on Free, 5 on Advanced, 10 on Ultra, 20 on Premium and unlimited on Enterprise.

OrbitEquip uses a fixed tool record

OrbitEquip currently organizes tools with fixed fields such as:

Name
Category
Location
Serial number
QR code
Notes

Categories and locations keep the tool list useful, but OrbitEquip does not currently provide arbitrary user-defined custom fields, folders or tags.

Better suited to customized inventory structures: Sortly

Stock levels and consumables

Things that get consumed need a different workflow

Sortly can track:

Quantities,
Units of measure,
Minimum levels,
Low-stock alerts,
Stock movements,
Inventory value, and
Low-stock reports.

Sortly's developer documentation describes quantity alerts and a min_quantity threshold. Its product materials also describe low-stock alerts that help teams know when to reorder.

That makes Sortly relevant for:

Wire stock
Fittings
Fasteners
Gloves
Filters
Replacement parts

OrbitEquip does not currently manage stock quantities. It is designed for things that should come back, not stock that gets consumed.

Better suited to consumable and quantity inventory: Sortly

Purchasing and restocking

Sortly connects inventory to purchase orders

Sortly currently supports purchase orders on applicable plans. Its product documentation describes creating a purchase order from inventory data, exporting it to a vendor, and marking items as received or partially received.

Current developer documentation also confirms purchase-order workflows involving vendors, ship-to details, line items, approval and status flow, partial receiving and received states.

OrbitEquip has no procurement workflow. It does not currently provide purchase requests, purchase orders, vendor records, receiving or replenishment.

Better suited to purchasing and replenishment: Sortly

Jobs and work-order inventory

Sortly now documents Jobs as a current workflow

Current Sortly documentation includes Jobs. Its developer documentation describes a Job as a work order where items can be assigned, tracked through status and returned when the work is complete.

Jobs can move through:

Not started
In progress
Completed

Sortly's product materials describe connecting tools, equipment, materials, supplies, parts and assets to the work they support. This is a meaningful current capability, not an old feature gap.

OrbitEquip supports locations and custody, but it does not currently provide an equivalent job or work-order object.

Better suited to inventory assigned directly to jobs or work orders: Sortly

Maintenance tracking and date-based alerts

OrbitEquip reports and resolves equipment issues

OrbitEquip currently supports a reactive equipment-issue workflow:

Issue description,
Maintenance photo,
Open or resolved state,
Status and resolution details, and
Issue history attached to the equipment record.

This helps a crew report a broken or problematic tool and keep it from silently returning to rotation. OrbitEquip does not currently provide calendar-based preventive maintenance schedules or recurring date reminders.

Sortly supports date-based alerts

Sortly documents date-based alerts for maintenance, repair, warranty and expiry dates. Its developer documentation describes DateReminder alerts tied to date or datetime custom fields.

That can be useful when managers need a reminder before a scheduled date. It should not automatically be described as a full CMMS without current official support for that wording.

Sortly is better suited when scheduled date reminders matter.

OrbitEquip is focused on reporting and resolving actual equipment issues.

Mobile and offline inventory work

Connectivity is part of the buying decision

Sortly supports native mobile inventory workflows and offline mobile access on applicable plans and workflows. Sortly says users can continue viewing and editing inventory when offline, then automatically synchronize updates across devices after connectivity returns.

OrbitEquip currently requires connectivity. Its browser-based scan flow does not provide offline synchronization. A manual code and browse-and-search fallback can help when a camera scan is not practical, but those options do not turn OrbitEquip into an offline inventory app.

Better suited to disconnected inventory work: Sortly

Integrations and API

Sortly connects to broader business workflows

Current Sortly materials describe applicable integrations such as:

QuickBooks Online,
Amazon Business US,
Slack,
Microsoft Teams,
API access, and
Webhooks.

The current Sortly developer documentation states that API access is available on the Enterprise plan. Confirm the exact integration, plan and account requirements directly with Sortly.

OrbitEquip keeps the system self-contained

OrbitEquip currently provides its own dashboard, search, filters, locations, checkout history and issue workflow. It does not currently provide an equivalent public API, webhooks, QuickBooks connection, Slack integration, Teams integration or other business-system connector.

That narrower boundary can be appropriate when the goal is tool accountability rather than a connected inventory stack.

Better suited to connected inventory workflows: Sortly

Sortly pricing vs. OrbitEquip pricing

OrbitEquip

OrbitEquip pricing and tool limits
Plan	Monthly list price	Tool limit	Users
Free	$0	25 tools	Unlimited
Starter	$15	500 tools	Unlimited
Pro	$35	2,500 tools	Unlimited
Business	$70	10,000 tools	Unlimited
Enterprise	Custom	Custom	Unlimited / current terms

OrbitEquip includes unlimited users across its current plans.

The permanent Free plan covers up to 25 tools. Paid plans start at $15/month for 500 tools. See the full OrbitEquip pricing page for current plan details.

Sortly

Sortly standard monthly pricing and Unique Item limits
Plan	Monthly list price	Unique Items	Users
Free	$0	100 Unique Items	1
Advanced	$49	500 Unique Items	2
Ultra	$149	2,000 Unique Items	5
Premium	$299	5,000 Unique Items	8
Enterprise	Custom	10,000+ Unique Items	12+

These are standard/list monthly prices checked on August 26, 2026, not the temporary annual promotional equivalents.

Current pricing-page highlights include:

Free: 100 Unique Items, 1 user and 2 active jobs.
Advanced: 500 Unique Items, 2 users and 5 active jobs.
Ultra: 2,000 Unique Items, 5 users and 10 active jobs.
Premium: 5,000 Unique Items, 8 users and 15 active jobs.
Enterprise: 10,000+ Unique Items, 12+ users and unlimited active jobs.

Current Sortly plan feature highlights

Free

100 Unique Items, 1 user license, 2 active jobs and 1 custom field on the current pricing page.

Advanced

500 Unique Items, 2 user licenses, 5 active jobs, unlimited QR label creation and 5 custom fields.

Ultra

2,000 Unique Items, 5 user licenses, 10 active jobs, QR and barcode label creation, purchase orders and 10 custom fields.

Premium

5,000 Unique Items, 8 user licenses, 15 active jobs, customizable role permissions, QuickBooks Online and 20 custom fields.

Enterprise

10,000+ Unique Items, 12+ user licenses, unlimited active jobs, unlimited custom fields, API/webhooks and dedicated customer success.

Sortly currently promotes a larger discount for first-year yearly subscribers. The pricing page states that the first year receives a 50% discount and subsequent yearly plans use a 20% discount. Yearly billing and promotional terms can change, so that offer is not used as the normal monthly price in this comparison.

For a contractor individually tracking hundreds of serialized tools and needing many users, OrbitEquip's pricing and unlimited-user model may be materially more favorable.

For a company tracking quantities of general inventory under a smaller number of Unique Items, Sortly's capacity model may be more efficient than the headline limits suggest.

Sortly's Unique Item limits and OrbitEquip's tool limits are not directly equivalent because Sortly can track quantity under a single Unique Item.

Where Sortly is better than OrbitEquip

Sortly is the stronger candidate when the inventory system needs to support more than serialized tool custody.

Quantity inventory

Track quantities, units and inventory value rather than creating a separate record for every identical consumable.

Consumables and stock

Manage materials, parts, supplies, products and other inventory that gets used rather than returned.

Low-stock alerts

Set minimum quantities and receive alerts when stock drops below the threshold.

Visual inventory

Add item photos and use a visual record to identify inventory and monitor condition.

Custom fields

Capture business-specific details with plan-based custom fields and filter reports by those fields.

Custom folders and tags

Organize inventory around locations, employees, categories, suppliers or the structure that fits the business.

Barcode support

Use barcode and QR scanning, existing codes and label generation from supported mobile workflows.

Purchase orders

Create, export, approve and receive purchase orders tied to inventory on applicable plans.

Pick lists

Create a list of inventory items so a team can pull the right tools, parts, supplies or materials for the work.

Stock counts

Create, assign and track physical stock counts through a dedicated workflow.

Jobs and work orders

Connect items to a job, project, work order, ticket or request, then track what goes out, gets used and comes back.

Offline mobile access

Continue viewing and updating inventory in supported offline mobile workflows, then sync after connectivity returns.

Reports

Use activity, inventory summary, transaction, low-stock, move and other reporting views for broader inventory analysis.

Integrations

Connect applicable plans to QuickBooks Online, Amazon Business US, Slack or Microsoft Teams.

API and webhooks

Enterprise customers can connect external systems through the Sortly API and webhooks.

If these are core requirements, choose Sortly.

Where OrbitEquip is better suited

Illustrative buyer description:

“We don't need to manage stock. We need every shared tool assigned to the right person.”

OrbitEquip's case is much narrower.

It is suited to teams that want:

Serialized reusable tools rather than consumable stock,
Contractor-specific custody language,
Unlimited users on every current plan,
Browser-based QR scanning,
Current-holder and checkout-history visibility,
A permanent Free plan and lower paid entry pricing,
Reactive equipment issue reporting, and
Fewer unrelated general-inventory workflows.

Less general inventory management, more focus on tool accountability.

Only need QR tool custody?

Try OrbitEquip free with up to 25 tools.

Unlimited users and no credit card required.

Try OrbitEquip free

Real-world decision examples

These are illustrative buying scenarios, not OrbitEquip customer case studies or testimonials.

15-person electrical contractor with 350 serialized tools

Needs:

Drills
Testers
Benders
Vans
Employee custody

No consumable inventory, stock alerts or purchasing requirement.

Start with OrbitEquip.

HVAC contractor tracking equipment and van stock

Needs:

Recovery machines
Gauges
Filters
Fittings
Low-stock alerts

Sortly may be the stronger fit if one system must manage equipment and consumables.

Small warehouse managing products and supplies

Needs:

Quantities
Purchase orders
Pick lists
Stock counts
Reorder alerts

Choose Sortly.

Plumbing contractor tracking expensive reusable tools

Needs:

Press tools
Drain cameras
Inspection equipment
Employee checkout

OrbitEquip is a sensible first evaluation.

For more context, see our tool management software for plumbers guide.

Business requiring QuickBooks or API integration

Inventory data needs to connect to another business system.

Sortly on an applicable plan.

OrbitEquip does not currently provide equivalent integrations or a public customer API.

Electrical contractor comparing tool custody options

If the central issue is shared serialized equipment across vans and jobsites, compare the focused workflow in our tool tracking software for electricians guide.

Evaluate OrbitEquip for QR custody; evaluate Sortly for mixed inventory.

Switching from Sortly to OrbitEquip

Confirm which Sortly workflows you actually use before migrating

Do not switch solely because of price.

Moving from Sortly to OrbitEquip may remove or require replacing:

Quantities,
Stock alerts,
Consumable inventory,
Custom fields,
Custom folders and tags,
General item photos,
Purchase orders,
Pick lists,
Stock counts,
Jobs and work orders,
Date-based alerts,
Offline mobile access,
Reports,
Integrations, and
API or webhook workflows.

If Sortly is primarily being used for:

Individually serialized tools,
Locations,
Employee checkout,
Current holder visibility, and
Checkout history,

then OrbitEquip may be worth evaluating as a narrower tool-custody system.

OrbitEquip supports CSV import on paid plans. That can help bring over a basic tool list, but it does not promise lossless migration of Sortly photos, custom fields, quantities, folders, purchase-order history, job history, alerts or API-related workflows.

Confirm which Sortly workflows you actually use before migrating, and do not cancel the existing system until the replacement has been validated.

Final verdict

Sortly is better when:

You need a general inventory system capable of handling:

Quantities,
Stock,
Products,
Materials,
Custom data,
Purchasing,
Jobs,
Offline workflows, and
Integrations.

OrbitEquip is better suited when:

The problem is narrower:

Track individually serialized tools, scan them in and out, and know who currently has each one.

If that is the problem you are trying to solve, a broader inventory system may not be necessary. If it is not, OrbitEquip is too narrow for your needs.

If you are comparing other asset platforms, see the AssetTiger alternative, GoCodes alternative and ToolWatch alternative comparisons.

See if the focused tool workflow is enough

Start with OrbitEquip's free plan and add a handful of real tools.

Print QR labels, check those tools in and out with your crew, and evaluate the workflow using your actual equipment.

Free for up to 25 tools. Unlimited users. No credit card required.

Try OrbitEquip free

Frequently asked questions

Is OrbitEquip a complete replacement for Sortly?

No.

Sortly is broader inventory software for quantities, consumables, photos, custom organization, alerts, purchasing, jobs, reporting and integrations.

OrbitEquip is a narrower system for serialized tool records, QR check-in/out, current holders, locations, history and equipment issue reporting.

Does Sortly have a free plan?

Yes. The current Free plan lists 100 Unique Items, 1 user license and 2 active jobs, with current feature limits shown on the official pricing page.

Does Sortly limit users?

Yes. Current published limits are 1 user on Free, 2 on Advanced, 5 on Ultra, 8 on Premium and 12+ on Enterprise.

Those are user licenses, not a statement about how many people can view or interact with every specific workflow. Confirm the current plan details before buying.

Does Sortly support check-in/check-out?

Yes. Sortly documents item check-in/check-out alongside its broader inventory workflows so teams can track who had an item, when and where it is being returned.

Does Sortly support QR and barcode scanning?

Yes. Sortly documents QR and barcode scanning, existing-code support and label generation through its supported mobile and inventory workflows. Third-party scanner support is also documented for applicable workflows.

Does OrbitEquip support barcodes?

No. OrbitEquip is currently QR-focused. It provides printable QR labels, browser-based scanning and manual or browse-and-search fallbacks when a camera scan is not practical.

Does Sortly manage consumables?

Yes. Sortly's quantity and stock model supports supplies, materials, parts, products and other consumable inventory workflows.

Does OrbitEquip manage consumables?

No. OrbitEquip is designed for reusable tools and equipment that should be checked out and returned. It does not currently manage quantity inventory, stock levels or consumable replenishment.

Does Sortly have maintenance reminders?

Sortly supports date-based alerts that can be used for maintenance, repair, warranty or expiry dates. That is not described here as a complete CMMS.

Does OrbitEquip have preventive-maintenance reminders?

No. OrbitEquip supports reactive equipment issue reporting with descriptions, photos, status and resolution history, but it does not currently provide scheduled date-based maintenance reminders.

Does Sortly work offline?

Yes, on applicable current plans and mobile workflows. Sortly documents viewing and editing inventory offline, followed by automatic synchronization when connectivity returns.

Does OrbitEquip work offline?

No. OrbitEquip's browser-based QR workflow currently requires connectivity. A short manual code and browse-and-search fallback can help when a camera scan is not practical, but they do not provide offline synchronization.

Which is better for contractors?

It depends on what the contractor needs to manage. OrbitEquip is suited to serialized tool custody across employees, vans, jobsites or a tool crib.

Sortly is the stronger fit when the contractor needs one inventory system for tools plus materials, quantities, consumables, stock alerts, purchasing, jobs, offline workflows or integrations.

How this comparison was researched

This comparison was reviewed against publicly available Sortly information in August 2026, including:

Historical Sortly information was not used where current official documentation showed newer Jobs or Purchase Orders functionality.

OrbitEquip information reflects the product's currently implemented v1 functionality.

Competitor products change. Verify critical pricing, limits and feature availability directly with Sortly before purchasing.

Last researched: August 26, 2026